Jobs I have Worked – From Internship to 1st job after college.

So I guess it is coincidence that I write about this job as we are having some sort of a reunion this weekend with some of the staff at this job. It just shows to me that this was more of a job to a lot of us. For the majority of us, we see each other as family.

I needed an internship for my degree at the University of Missouri. I wanted to get involved in minor league baseball and started looking. I knew that a lot of teams existed and I started contacting teams across the Midwest. I had one team very interested and asked for another interview, but in person. They were about 400 miles away from Columbia, MO and knew it would be a new challenge for me to work far away from home. Then I remembered a team just outside of St. Louis in O’Fallon, MO. They had another team across the river in Illinois that was just starting up. So, I interviewed with both teams over spring break. The one across the river had a lot of growing pains and were not looking for an intern right at that moment. I then got a call from the team in O’Fallon inviting me to join the team that summer. Excited does not even begin to describe how I felt. I was doing an internship in baseball. If you know me, that was a dream come true.

I started at the end of May and worked until the middle of August before I had to go back to school. We had to work a minimum of 480 hours for to receive a grade in the class. I think I hit that about halfway through the internship. We worked from 8:30 in the morning and usually went late into the evening on game days. We also had extra events at the ballpark that we worked the concession stand and had a blast doing it.

The summer flew by so quickly. We worked extremely hard and brought in a lot of fans. I started to learn what the business was about and it is just a little more than the baseball that is played on the field. Its’ focus was on the fans and the fans would have a good time no matter what the final score of the game was.

After my only second A+ in college (Dad, be nice!), I went back to college for my senior year to try and figure out what I wanted to do with my life that May. The Rascals asked me to come back even though they went through a management change. I graduated from Mizzou on a Sunday and by that Wednesday morning, I was back in the office. That began my life in the “real world.” We had many high’s and lo’s while working at the Rascals. There are too many stories to write on hear that helped shape my understanding of working hard. What I learned is that if your work can be great only if you have a staff around you to make it great. We had that staff. We were around each other so much during the season, once the season ended, we continued to hang out on many nights. From watching college football on weekends to having late nights playing Bond on XBOX.

I left the Rascals in January 2005 for my next job, which will be talked about next time. Since then, we have stayed in touch. Many have gotten married and had kids. Some have moved on to high end jobs and some have passed on. Either way, for everyone I worked with at the Rascals, I will always be in debt and learned something from each and everyone there. It really helped to teach me how to be the worker I am today!